The Visit on 10 - Nirimba Education Precinct - Home · On the Saturday of our visit we parked the cars in the car park by memorial garden but quickly continued ... near the fence

The Visit on 10/9/2011 to HMAS Nirimba by part of the Jan 1976

intake

0900 10/09/2011 a convoy of about 10 cars drove through the security gate of the Nirimba Educational

Precinct carrying about 24 ex-Nirimba apprentices. For many this is the first time they have returned

since their passing out parade in late 77 or early 78 depending on their subject.

Most joined on 12th

January 1976 aged from 15½ at

the youngest to some who were 17 but we were

supplemented by JR’s who had started their training

in Western Australia the year before. We numbered

about 146 but were quickly joined by around 30

Malaysians being trained in Australia for the Royal

Malaysian Navy. In total we numbered 176 and we

were the biggest intake Nirimba had seen.

Members of Bass Div (now T3) in 1977

On the Saturday of our visit we parked the cars in the car park by memorial garden but quickly continued

on foot down the main road Warawara Circ toward the accommodation blocks. We had been told prior

that the names of the blocks had been changed but it still

took some by surprise. The 2 blocks nearest to the road

were always reserved for the new incoming intake (Sprogs

as we were known). Torres was on the left and Tasman on

the right looking from the road. On that morning, divided

loyalties returned regarding these 2 blocks. You see we

spent 2yrs in these accommodation blocks but after the

first 6 months (1st term) we moved onto Dampier, Bass,

Bligh or King Divisions where we served out the

remaining 3 terms. However, from then on our heritage as

an apprentice was always linked to that first 6 months

away from home as we fondly remembered ourselves as

being either a “Torres” or a “Tasman”. Torres on left and Tasman on right

We moved on through the accommodation blocks. Some were lucky enough to live in ground floor

Dampier Div (which has retained its original name) or Bligh Div (T2C) and were able to peer in through

dusty windows into history. My own cabin in Dampier has retained much of its original appearance with

the lockers, bunks, wall heaters, and room divider all still in place. This said most of the blokes were

horrified to find carpet in the rooms. We all laboured over the vinyl floor tiles … in fact our very

existence on earth at that time seemed to revolve around chemically striping the old polish of the floor,

buffing all the scuff marks and stains from the tiles then polish, buff, polish, buff until you could examine

your pimples in the reflection. We would maintain the floor on a daily basis, do a major buff and polish

on a weekly basis but every 6 or 8 weeks a weekend was sacrificed to “make it gleam”. Covering these

works of art is sacrilegious but to think they gave later intakes any form of comfort or ease by covering

the floor is just too much to consider.

The walkway between the blocks was always a point of “Muster” we would spend much of our time

standing at attention in ranks of 3 facing our

respective blocks being inspected or

punished at all hours for the slightest thing

out of place. It was from here we would also

get paid. Lining up in a mini parade in ranks

of 3 between Bligh and King (T2C and T3C)

facing Colebee Rd and as our name was

called we would step forward, salute, say our

official number and receive our pay packet

(with real cash in those days).

Here too was the only form of

communication with family as the only 2

public phone boxes stood by the steps to the

bathrooms of these two blocks. Today the

steps no longer exist nor do the doorways,

How time changes things! Some of the King Div guys feeling 16 again

Quiet a few took advantage of the offer to step inside T3B but finding nobody in there we kept ourselves

to the ground floor. This of course was a bigger shock than finding Carpet in Dampier and King Div. This

floor had a much higher quality carpet but …And a lift???? Has the world gone completely mad? We left

that building with the knowledge that the world really has changed over the years.

We continued on down Colebee Rd taking in the T4/5 where the engineering branches learned Fitting and

turning. T7 was the old torture chamber (this was often referred to as the sports hanger but the disguise

was very thin). While it was the sports centre then, few of your current students would envisage the

aircraft it once housed nor the impressive C47 or Dc3 aircraft that once sat between T4 & T6 running up

its engines once a week to keep it tip-top. T6 was where the woodwork workshops trained budding

Shipwrights and the Plumbing shop was right down the end of T6.

We finished at T8 known in our day as the MEDB (Marine Engineering Development Building) so many

engines stripped, rebuilt and tested in the cells there. This also was the home of a Garrick Steam engine

often seen chugging on the lawn outside and the Foden steam truck now based in Melbourne. These are

great memories for us all.

Across the road from the MEDB was the old WW2 corrugated buildings which housed the Tech Drawing

School and engineering theory classrooms. One member of our intake actually missed the end of Quakers

Road and continued through the fence there coming to rest in the Tech Drawing classroom.

Returning up Colebee Rd we passed the building we knew as Facility 12 (now T1). This was built during

our last year but not commissioned when we left so was not part of our life here but then onto C21. This

building was completed buy the end of our 1st term so it was used by us for about 18 months before we

left … and the tales it could tell. The current library of course was our dining hall and opposite was the

cafe and Apprentice’s Bar … many of us never reached 18 before leaving Nirimba and as a result were

never able to drink in that bar

(It was very well policed).

The little office up at the Colebee Rd end and opposite the shop/post office seems to have little function

now gives no indication as to how integral it was in our day to day lives back then; but it was the

Apprentices’ Regulating Office where we reported to and had all manners of work and jobs issued to us.

Stranger still is the steps/ramp combination in C21

leading down to the our old bar (now the coffee shop)

Few of the current students would understand that the

ramp is a later addition … My intake in became

somewhat infamous after our passing out celebrations.

Several of the guys with 4X4 cars drove in convoy

from Warawara Rd through this complex and up the

(then) stairs to the Regulating Office and then down

the next set of stairs to Colebee Rd.

Of course many of the doors and the current shop/post

office have been added since and the same feat could

no longer be possible.

The ramp and doors did not exist in 78

We finished the morning walking back up the hill to the gate but

not before stopping to remember the hard times. Between

Warawara Rd and the creek just down hill from the recent

addition to Wyndham High is a small raised grass area. Most

would not notice the distinct shape of a small golf green. It is all

that remains of a 9 hole golf course made in 1976-78. That golf

course was made by hand as a punishment detail for the

apprentices. Bucket by bucket all the dirt came from the creek

near the fence down behind what is now Terra Sancta. It took 3

years and thousands of buckets to make but remains as testimony

of the type of people the Navy moulded us into. The Golf Green just visible under the shadow

I thank you on behalf of all the intake of Jan 76 but also for the many others who pass through the gates to

re-visit this patch of dirt that was once home to so many that it still has its own postcode 2764. While

many of our intake could not make the reunion through commitments elsewhere (at least 6 are still

serving members of the R.A.N.) and at least half our number who could not be located we had a great day

and appreciate your kind response to our request.

.

Paul Bowers

Ex- Apprentice

HMAS Nirimba NSW 2764